Worried about omicron? COVID’s delta strain remains a bigger threat, UNC doctors say
While it’s inevitable that the omicron variant of the coronavirus will emerge in North Carolina, it may not do as much damage as the delta variant of the virus has done in the state, doctors at UNC Health said Wednesday.
Scientists are concerned about the omicron variant discovered in South Africa late last month because it contains numerous mutations that may make it more contagious or capable of making people sicker. So far, scientists don’t know if either is true.
But they are looking out for the variant as people carry it on airplanes to other parts of the world. Dr. Melissa Miller, director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at UNC, said omicron has almost certainly arrived in the United States (federal officials later confirmed a case in California) and will make it to North Carolina.
“Whether it out-competes and becomes the dominant strain remains to be seen,” Miller said during a press briefing Wednesday, “because that’s not even the case in South Africa yet. It’s still at a very low frequency in South Africa.”
Miller’s lab does genetic sequencing of most of the positive coronavirus samples it receives and so far is only seeing the delta variant, she said.
Delta arrived in North Carolina in the summer and fueled a surge in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, especially among people who were not vaccinated. Delta now accounts for nearly all of the roughly 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the state each day.
If it turns out the omicron variant behaves like delta, scientists and doctors may not change their approach to COVID-19, said Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease expert at UNC. Wohl said scientists will want to determine whether existing vaccines and treatments, including various types of monoclonal antibody therapies, are still effective against omicron.
“A lot depends upon the consequences of omicron compared to other variants,” Wohl said. “If it causes similar disease, then I think our footing would not be dramatically different.”
‘Delta is a bad variant’
Wohl said people should still take steps to prevent infection and spread of the delta variant, including wearing masks in public places, getting tested before attending gatherings and getting vaccinated. He recommends the booster shot for those who are eligible.
“Delta is a bad variant,” he said. “Delta already ... spread wildly, has caused lots of disease, killed tens if not hundreds thousands of people. So we need to protect ourselves against what we have right here right now that’s circulating in our communities. So boosting right now is really smart.”
He noted that antibodies produced by vaccines that were designed to ward off the original strains of the coronavirus offered some protection against the delta variant. The same may be true with omicron.
“I think you want to have high levels of antibody right now,” he said.
Viruses like the coronavirus are always changing and mutating, Miller said. Often those mutations are actually fatal to the virus.
But occasionally the virus changes in ways that help it survive and thrive, which is what’s happened with omicron, she said.
Wohl said even if omicron doesn’t turn out to be much of a threat to North Carolinians, some other dangerous variant may emerge, particularly in places where lots of people are not vaccinated and the virus is passed around.
“This is a good dress rehearsal,” he said. “I don’t think people should panic, but I think they should be vigilant and do what they should have been doing anyhow right now, which I know is really hard.”
Wohl also said all the talk about the omicron variant before scientists even know what it will do is a sign that scientists are keeping up with the coronavirus, which will help the world respond more quickly.
“Folks listening should not be disappointed or scratch their heads and say, ‘These guys don’t know what they’re doing.’ It’s the exact opposite,” he said. “That we even know about this shows we do know what we’re doing.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 1:32 PM with the headline "Worried about omicron? COVID’s delta strain remains a bigger threat, UNC doctors say."
